When did fans referring to Toriyama on a first name basis first begin?

[floofychan333]

I've said "Akira" a few times, once in a post title, but it was changed to Toriyama by moderators. I guess it's not polite or whatever to call him Akira so I always just say Toriyama-sensei, same as I say Kikuchi-sensei, Tezuka-sensei, or Murakami-sensei.

[Payne222]

Fanboy Toriyama-Sensei ramblings.

There's no need to get bent all out of shape over some people referring to the guy by his first name. Most of us are Westerners and have the cultural acceptance of referring to people by their first names, and that's fine. If you want to refer to him as Almighty Kami Toriyama-Sensei, great, but everyone else doesn't have to call him that to be "functional adults".

[JulieYBM]

Fanboy Toriyama-Sensei ramblings.

There's no need to get bent all out of shape over some people referring to the guy by his first name. Most of us are Westerners and have the cultural acceptance of referring to people by their first names, and that's fine. If you want to refer to him as Almighty Kami Toriyama-Sensei, great, but everyone else doesn't have to call him that to be "functional adults".

Hi, westerner here (like Kunzait). I don't call someone I don't know by their first name unless I'm being an obtuse asshole. Hell, I still don't even call my teachers by their first names when I see them shopping and I've been out of school for nearly a decade. It's the weirdest thing in the world for me to not call my bosses by their last names.

Let's not dive into weird strawman arguments, please.

[Gaffer Tape]

Hi, westerner here (like Kunzait). I don't call someone I don't know by their first name unless I'm being an obtuse asshole. Hell, I still don't even call my teachers by their first names when I see them shopping and I've been out of school for nearly a decade. It's the weirdest thing in the world for me to not call my bosses by their last names.

Let's not dive into weird strawman arguments, please.

It must be a matter of different perspectives, then. Because when I was in college my classmates and I were expected to call nearly all of our professors by their first names. I have *never* had a job where I didn't refer to my bosses by their first names, and that includes the vice-president of my company.

Now, I'm not saying I refer to Toriyama by his first name, nor am I advocating anyone do so. But as has been mentioned, I'm surprised at all the responses saying it never happens here, because it does happen quite frequently, and the reaction is usually ridiculously overblown, in my opinion. I'm certainly not someone who would dismiss anyone's level of comfort or cultural practices (unless they were actually harmful), and I do in a general sense agree that, unless you do know him personally and are able to make that call, Toriyama makes more sense, both as an impersonal reference and simply for the sake of clarity.

It's just that my own personal perspective on the matter is that intent is more important than the dogma of etiquette. I have people accidentally call me "ma'am" quite frequently. And then they act so embarrassed, like they just whipped out their dick and slapped me with it. And my feeling is, as long as I can tell you're treating me with respect and not specifically demeaning me, if you're not ignoring my own explicitly-stated boundaries or preferences, it really doesn't matter what terminology you use. So unless the context of the usage of "Akira" implies it's being used to denigrate, or unless Toriyama came out with a press release saying it really hurts his feelings when people he doesn't know and will never meet use his given name, it's not something I can really get that bothered about. It's typically just someone who isn't aware of Japanese cultural customs and is using the name the same way we'd use Toriyama.

Then adding on to that is the sheer what-the-fuckery confusion of Westerners flipping Japanese name order. I remember the first time I realized that as a kid, I found myself totally confused as to which rendering was which, so I had no idea which name *was* the family name and which was the given name.

[Cetra]

Fanboy Toriyama-Sensei ramblings.

There's no need to get bent all out of shape over some people referring to the guy by his first name. Most of us are Westerners and have the cultural acceptance of referring to people by their first names, and that's fine. If you want to refer to him as Almighty Kami Toriyama-Sensei, great, but everyone else doesn't have to call him that to be "functional adults".

Hi, westerner here (like Kunzait). I don't call someone I don't know by their first name unless I'm being an obtuse asshole. Hell, I still don't even call my teachers by their first names when I see them shopping and I've been out of school for nearly a decade. It's the weirdest thing in the world for me to not call my bosses by their last names.

Let's not dive into weird strawman arguments, please.

Yes, same goes for me not calling Toriyama-san just "Toriyama". I think using anything like "Mr." or "san" or anything else is the least amount of respect someone should pay for someone as long as its not some talk about a person that you don't show any respect for or do not actually care about in the first place.

[dbgtFO]

I don't even remember, if it was taught in school, that you shouldn't act like you're on a first name basis with people you don't know, but it's pretty normal here in Denmark to be on first name basis with your teachers, superiors etc.
I believe we make the inference, that one should address other people you don't know with their full name or last name, from reading news articles and the like, because in those publications, it's more formal, thanks to the more professional standard they have, which is also witnessed in court documents and forms etc.

Furthermore you also see this with sports stars, where they are generally known by their last name or full name unless they got an unusual first name, like Kobe, LeBron etc. or a nickname.
So it's just ingrained to call people you are not on a first name basis with their full name or their last name/family name or an acronym of that.
Calling him just Akira, really just boggles my mind and grinds my gears a bit, but I guess we're just different like that.

[rereboy]

Fanboy Toriyama-Sensei ramblings.

There's no need to get bent all out of shape over some people referring to the guy by his first name. Most of us are Westerners and have the cultural acceptance of referring to people by their first names, and that's fine. If you want to refer to him as Almighty Kami Toriyama-Sensei, great, but everyone else doesn't have to call him that to be "functional adults".

Hi, westerner here (like Kunzait). I don't call someone I don't know by their first name unless I'm being an obtuse asshole. Hell, I still don't even call my teachers by their first names when I see them shopping and I've been out of school for nearly a decade. It's the weirdest thing in the world for me to not call my bosses by their last names.

Let's not dive into weird strawman arguments, please.

Nobody here is talking to him directly. Rules of courtesy like that are meant for when we are talking to the person directly or when in a formal environment. I am a westerner and even though I always called people like teachers and so on by their last name when I talked to them directly, when talking about them to other people informally, especially friends, it's pretty common to relax the treatment and refer to them by first name or even nicknames. And here we are, online, in a informal environment, not talking to Toriyama directly, so...

[Payne222]

Hi, westerner here (like Kunzait). I don't call someone I don't know by their first name unless I'm being an obtuse asshole. Hell, I still don't even call my teachers by their first names when I see them shopping and I've been out of school for nearly a decade. It's the weirdest thing in the world for me to not call my bosses by their last names.

Let's not dive into weird strawman arguments, please.

That's great for you, then. Just because you have a first name complex doesn't mean that everyone else who doesn't is an "obtuse asshole".

Is it a little odd? Yeah, sure. But it's in no way being an asshole or a non-fuctioning person like you and some others have tried to claim.

[Kunzait_83]

There's no need to get bent all out of shape over some people referring to the guy by his first name. Most of us are Westerners and have the cultural acceptance of referring to people by their first names, and that's fine. If you want to refer to him as Almighty Kami Toriyama-Sensei, great, but everyone else doesn't have to call him that to be "functional adults".

Is it a little odd? Yeah, sure. But it's in no way being an asshole or a non-fuctioning person like you and some others have tried to claim.

You do realize that nobody called YOU PERSONALLY "non-functional" or whatever, right? The fact that you're taking this weirdly personally is mystifying to me. No one was talking to you. I wasn't talking to you. I have no idea who the hell you even are.

And no, this isn't some "staying faithful to glorious Nippon traditions" thing that I'm talking about (which seems to be the implication). At all. Like I said, the idea of referring to a complete stranger casually by their first name, much less someone who is in some "esteemed" professional position, is in NO WAY exclusively a Japanese notion.

Yes the Japanese put an even STRONGER emphasis on it, sure, but we still have that very same cultural concept here in the West as well. Unless you have some well worked out familiar shorthand with them (which does happen of course), you don't address to your boss or teacher or customers you serve or local political figures or whomever by their first name as if you know them. In perhaps not all, but in a LOT Of instances, doing that would make you come across to most people as kind of a rude asshole. In polite society, its usually Mr. this or Mrs./Ms. that.

Am I "getting bent out of shape" over it, as you describe? No, I was simply impressing the distinction between how fans addressed the dude then vs how they have now and in the years since, because there's DEFINITELY a marked difference.

Yes we're a LOT less formal in the United States than the Japanese are over in Japan. We're much more lax about titles and polite forms of speech than they generally are. But just because we have LESS rigid social customs and emphasis on politeness does not mean that we have NO social customs or emphasis on politeness at all. And yes, here in the U.S., on the average overall whole, you address strangers and professionals by their last name. This idea that you can just socially get away with calling anyone and everyone you come across in life as Bob or Jim or Nancy or what have you just because you live in 'Murica is fucking absurd and incorrect.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Also Jacob didnt call anyone an asshole, he said he would FEEL like an asshole if he did call people by first name.

[Payne222]

Rant

I'm not taking it personally at all, just trying to get you guys to calm down over something so minuscule as people online referring to a manga artist by his first name. Apparently this struck a nerve with you so I'll just drop it, I didn't mean to cause anyone to have a conniption.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Its just that Kunzait and Jacob assumed you meant to call them Weaboos. If you didnt mean any offense with what you said then indeed is case closed.

[8000 Saiyan]

There are some forums where the members call him Akira. I always refer to him as Toriyama.